Red Stripe Beer at IA State Fair

If any of you are desparate to find Jamaica's Red Stripe beer - it can be found at the Iowa State Fair (runs through Sunday, 8/23). There's a booth near the giant slide that states "Beer From Around the World" so I just had to see - and they did have it. If you go,the beef kabobs next door in Beattie's Melon Patch (resturant) are wonderful!

Ok - some answers. The beer was in bottle form. I dont know if they had the light version - we're going one more day but my answer will be too late to help out. Actually I'm not a beer drinker, so I never tried to find it before, but if Pres. Obama has it at the White House I at least need to try it on our next vacation. Oh - and it wasn't too far away from the big boar and huge cow!

35 days until Red Stripe on tap any time I want it. Is this heaven ? CN on the 23rd. I'm in Palmyra New York and we have a c-store that sells Red Stripe pounder cans and deuces. $6.79 for a 4-pak of pounders... ouch, but worth it.

Red Stripe kegs

My hubby and I recently acquired a kegerator, and have chased many wild geese trying to find red strip in a keg in the states. It simply just doesn't exist, is what all beer distributors have told me.

I would seriously call the IA state fair folk to ask them where they got their keg from, and compliment them on their butter cows.

Cheers!

Missus, you are correct, I have tried to acquire Red stripe quarers or halves but they are non-existent. I'm going to CN in 35 days... havent been on the island for 8 yrs. You can imagine how excited we are !!

If any of you are desparate to find Jamaica's Red Stripe beer - it can be found at the Iowa State Fair (runs through Sunday, 8/23). There's a booth near the giant slide that states "Beer From Around the World" so I just had to see - and they did have it. If you go,the beef kabobs next door in Beattie's Melon Patch (resturant) are wonderful!

If you are in Iowa, you can get it at all target stores. It is just not as good as the fresh stuff.

I had it in London last year, it was on tap out of a keg and tasted much better than the bottled stuff in the states.

Red Stripe is pretty easy to come by in the Rochester, NY area. Our local grocery store chain, Wegmans, carries it in their beer cooler (right near Corona, Landshark & Sol, etc...) !! Their new "special" beer area also carries tall cans of Red Stripe. Also, we were recently at a bar down on the lake (Lake Ontario) that actually carried Red Stripe (pretty cool !!).

But, while I do buy Red Stripe from our store here.......it always seems to taste much better when you're drinking a bottle of it in Jamaica !! (only 4 more days & we'll be back in Jamaica drinking it for "real" !!)

Red Stripe and the Iowa State Fair

Hi Beach Bum (Iowa Mon)-

Just saw your post. I didn't get to the State Fair this year. We just got back from England - 3 weeks, and what a trip! We saw Red Stripe in the bottle over there, and I see several packages in the stores here.

Our Red Stripe distributor (my old boss) used to carry Red Stripe in 1/6 BBLS - about 5.16 gallons, shaped more cylindrical (like the Pepsi cylinders). It's handled by Guinness USA, and the distributor must purchase it by the pallet - 15 to a pallet if I remember right. It's got a short shelf life, so if your market can't handle a minimum of 15 a month, it's not worth carrying. We were struggling keeping it fresh.

I don't know if they still carry it here in Waterloo (I retired), but keep after your distributor if you can. Things can change fast in that business.

I've never heard of Red Stripe Light being imported into the US at all.

I agree even though Wegmans has Red Stripe it is much better in Jamaica. Before our first trip to CSA last year we bought most of the red stripe that our local Wegmans (Corning) had. Our cashiers started to get curious and those of age started buying it to try now they want to go to Jamaica and try it there to compare. 50 days 11 hours till we leave out of Rochester NY. Yeah me!!!

Hey Jennny,
We stopped for dinner in Corning back in June. We were on the way back to Rochester from the Jimmy Buffet concert in Philly, so we stopped in Corning to eat since it was dinner time !! Had to have a Corona w/ dinner though, since the restaurant didn't have Red Stripe (just to keep this on topic !!)

I have a theory on why Red Stripe tastes different in Jamaica. Even the beer sold in the States is bottled in Jamaica (unlike some other imports). It then must go through customs etc before arriving in the US and then is distributed. By the time it gets on your liquor store shelves, the beer has gotten rather old and skunked. When you get a Red Strip in Jamaica, it is much fresher as it has not gone through all of the shipping, customs, etc. Plus, they are able to keep the beer refrigerated the whole time which helps to keep the beer fresh.